Louis-Philippe was the last king actually to rule France. He was born October 6, 1773 and died August 26, 1850. His father died on the guillotine, but he had escaped to Italy. He spent more than twenty years on the run, living under assumed names, traveling as a homeless vagabond and fathering at least two children on the way. He even reached America, all the while a mob searched for him back in Paris, trying to chop off his head too.Louis Philippe I regained power on August 9, 1830, when the French National Assembly declared him Louis-Philippe I, King of the French. He ruled from 1830 until February 24, 1848, when he abdicated in favor of his grandson, Louis Philippe D'Orleans, the author of the book "History of the Civil War in America." On 24 February 1848, King Louis Philippe I abdicated in favor of his nine-year-old grandson, Louis Philippe, Comte de Paris, author of that book. Louis Philippe I lived out the last two years of his life in England before dying in 1850.